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A Biannual Publication of Georgia Regents University Research Community
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TEDDY Study
Graduate Research Day
Research Institute Awardees
External Advisory Board
Chairman of Psychology
Extramural Awards
Pharmacy Center
Intramural Awards
Innovation Summit
High-Impact Publications
BIO 2013
Smart Compliance
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Junior Physics Major Awarded
Veterans Research
Lab Animal Services Director
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Contact information: RESEARCH Impact is published bi annually for the GRU research community by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research.
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Mark Hamrick, Ph.D. —Senior Vice President for Research, and Professor, Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics (mhamrick@gru.edu)
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Publications Director—Christine Hurley Deriso (cderiso@gru.edu)
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Editor/Designer—Patricia Johnson (pjohnson1@gru.edu)
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Photographers—Patricia Johnson, Phil Jones, University of California San Diego, Stock Exchange
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Cover— BIO 2013 Dr. Chris McKinney
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H Links:
www.gru.edu/research www.experts.scival.com/ghsu
Submissions: Please send news and updates for future editions to Mark Hamrick, Ph.D. (mhamrick@gru.edu).
TEDDY study yielding new approach to finding high-risk genes for type 1 diabetes
  Visit insider.gru.edu/magazine to read GResearch,
a biannual magazine exploring the university’s most exciting and innovative research. The fall edition will include research on risk factors for type 1 diabetes, medieval-era mental health, and post-slavery African-American education in the United States, to cite just a few of the stories we’re working on.
Congratulations Georgia Regents University Research Institute Awardees Distinguished Research Award: Dr. Catherine Davis, Professor of Pediatrics:
Davis, who earned a Ph.D. in
clinical health psychology from the
2003
University of Miami, has received over $6 million in funding from the National Institutions of Health since 2003 and is principal investigator for a study of the effects of exercise and overweight on children’s cognition. Her work was recently featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association. She has received a Distinguished Faculty Award for Clinical Research and an Outstanding Young Clinical Faculty Award from MCG. She is the founding Secretary/Treasurer of GRU’s Faculty Senate.
Emerging Scientist Award:
Dr. Brian Miller, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Health Behavior:
Miller earned a Ph.D. in
2010
psychiatry from the University of Oulu
(Finland) and a medical degree from The Ohio State University. He served as Chief Resident in Psychiatry at MCG and joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2010. He has National Institutes of Health funding to study predictive markers in schizophrenia relapse. He has 30 peerreviewed publications and recently received a New Investigator Award from the National Institute of Mental Health New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit.
Congratulations Georgia Regents University
Research Institute Awardees
Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Dennis Ownby, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics:
Ownby earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio and completed a residency and fellowship at Duke University. He has more than 140 peer-reviewed publications on the effects of asthma and allergy on children’s health and has received numerous extramural grant awards, most recently a $ 9 million Program Project grant on “Pets and the Infant Microbiome.” Ownby has chaired the American Board of Allergy and Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Data Monitoring Board, and Allergenic Products Advisory Committee of the Federal Drug Administration. He has been included in the “America’s Top Doctors” list since 2003.
2003
Mahesh
Distinguished
Dr. David Munn, Professor of Pediatrics:
Research
Award:
Munn earned his medical degree and completed a pediatrics residency at MCG. He completed hematology-oncology fellowships at Case Western Reserve and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He has twice received the MCG Distinguished Faculty Award in Basic Research. His research in immunotherapy has been supported continuously by the National Institutes of Health. Munn has more than 100 publications, including two in Science, and has been part of more than 15 patent applications since 1998. In aggregate, his papers have been cited more than 10,000 times in the scientific literature.
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Stefanek Named Chairman of Psychology
Dr. Michael Stefanek has been named
Professor and Chairman of Psychology. He began June
June 1
University of Maryland Cancer Center and Anesthesiology Department, coordinating clinical services for patients with chronic pain. Stefanek next served as Chief of the Basic and Biobehavioral Research Branch for the National Cancer Institute, followed by a position as Vice President, Behavioral Research and Director of the American Cancer Society Behavioral Research Center.
1. He earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. He began his career as Assistant Professor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and served as the first clinical and research Most recently, Stefanek was Associate psychologist with the Johns Hopkins Vice President of Research and Collaborative Oncology Center. He then moved to Research at Indiana University. the University of Maryland, where he He has researched directed the Adult Psychology Program, anticipatorynausea and continued his work with the
andvomiting
among chemotherapy patients and decisionmaking related to bilateral prophylactic mastectomy. His research approaches range from observational and survey research to clinical trials.
He has published on topics including breast cancer support groups and cancer screening. He is a reviewer for the PatientCentered Outcomes Research Institute, a federal initiative focused on shared decisionmaking in health care. Stefanek plans to integrate his research interest in decision-making campuswide and expand collaborative opportunities.
New Center To Strengthen GRU-UGA Partnership
MCG has opened a
Center for Pharmacy and Experimental Therapeutics
Dr. Susan Fagan, Jowdy
5,000 Sq. Ft.
to build on the 40-year partnership of GRU’s partnership with the University of Georgia pharmacy program and to strengthen both institutions’ translational research.
Professor at the UGA College of Pharmacy, will oversee the initiative as MCG’s Assistant Dean for Pharmacy and Experimental Therapeutics. The center will include faculty from both GRU and UGA. Roughly 30 of UGA’s doctor of pharmacy students spend the final two years of their studies at the GRU campus. A graduate program, postdoctor of pharmacy residency training program, and an extramurally funded program to facilitate treatment of transplant patients also are based at the Augusta campus. The program has ongoing collaborations with each of GRU’s eight colleges. Facilities include about
5,000 square feet on the campus periphery as well as laboratory space at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and plans for expansion are underway.
GRU To Co-Host Innovation Summit
GRU and the Savannah River National Laboratory will co-
host an inaugural innovation summit Sept. 17-18 at Augusta’s Kroc Center. Speakers will discuss topics such as high-tech serial entrepreneurship, crowd funding, and local investing strategies.
Sept. 17-18
The interactive conference will include a “shark tank” segment with individuals pitching ideas to an expert panel and the audience. Exhibitors will also be on hand.
For more information, contact Chris McKinney in the Office of Innovation Commercialization at ext.1-4062 or chmkinney@gru.edu.
GRU Has strong presence at BIO in Chicago
BIO 2013 Carl Clark, Chris McKinney, and Billie Moore from the Office of Innovation
Commercialization participated in the
BIO 2013 Georgia Paviliion this April in Chicago. Over 10,000 people
worldwide attend the annual convention of BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization – www.bio.org), the world’s largest biotech industry association. The conference enables one-on-one intensive discussions with companies and investors with whom GRU has current and potential intellectual property license agreements and other collaborations.
Junior Physics Major Receives American Physical Society Research Award
Junior physics major Simeon Hanks was honored
for Outstanding Research Presentation at the American Physical Society
March Meeting in Baltimore. This international conference is held annually on research regarding condensed matter physics and materials science. Simeon presented his research on the “High temperature series expansion and the exact solution study of the 1/5 depleted square lattice Ising model.” The work was done in collaboration with Professor Jaan Oitmaa from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The research enabled prediction of the critical magnetic transition temperature of the depleted lattice using both an exact solution and a high-temperature series expansion.
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The meeting is the largest physics gathering in the world, highlighting physics research from industry, academia, and major labs around the globe while enabling undergraduates to showcase their research. The conference awards are part of the annual Future of Physics Days events, sponsored by the American Physical Society and the Society for Physics Students. Hanks’ presentation, one of 70 at the meeting, was judged outstanding within his session. His research advisor is Dr. Trinanjan Datta and his work is supported through the National Science Foundation Savannah Rivers Scholars program grant. Hanks also received the Department of Chemistry and Physics 2013 Best Undergraduate Research in Physics Award and the American Physical Society Future of Physics Day Travel Award.
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2013
Event Inspires, Rewards Veteran-Related Research The Office of Research and Development hosted
VA Research Week in May to inspire and
reward health care innovations for veterans and the nation. The event, VA Research Week Inspires, in-
cluded oral and poster presentations, including Dr. Azza El-Remessy’s presentation on the University of Georgia’s and VA’s clinical and ex-
VETS
perimental therapeutics partnership. Keynote
speaker Zheng Dong, a senior career scientist
at Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Regents’ Professor at GRU, discussed the strong ties among GRU, UGA, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Chien Delivers
Graduate Research Day Keynote Address Dr. Shu Chien, University Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine at the University of
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2011/10/03_shuchien.html
California, San Diego, delivered the keynote address at GRU’s inaugural Graduate Research Day this spring. The event included presentation of 85 posters by graduate students, 62 by biomedical sciences Ph.D. students, seven by pharmacy students, six by health informatics students, five by medical illustration students, four by education students, and two by nursing students. Seventeen posters were presented by postdoctoral fellows in biomedical sciences and UGA College of Pharmacy laboratories, and—new for 2013—four from graduate medical residents.
2013
GRU Forms External Advisory Board for Research
  GRU has established an External Advisory Board for Research to independently assess plans for research growth and progress in meeting these goals. The board will also make recommendations regarding changes and improvements to advance the research mission.
Members are: Dr. Eli Adashi,
Professor of Medical Science and Immediate Past Dean of Medicine, Brown University Russell Allen, President and Chief Executive Officer, GeorgiaBio
Dr. Camilla Benbow,
Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University Dr. Arlene Garrison, Vice President for University Partnerships, Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Dr. David Guzick,
Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and President, University of Florida and Shands Health System Dr. William Sessa, Professor and Vice Chairman and Professor of Pharmacology, Yale School of Medicine
New Extramural Research Awards Manuela Bartoli, Ph.D., Department of
Medicine, “Regulation of Endogenous Antioxidant Systems in Diabetic Retinopathy,” National Eye Institute
Graydon Gonsalvez, Ph.D., Depart-
ment of Cellular Biology & Anatomy, “A Molecular Examination of mRNA Localization and Cell Polarization,” American Cancer Society
Abiodun E. Akinwuntan, Ph.D., College of Allied Health Sciences, “Assessment and Rehabilitation of Fitness-to-Drive in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis (MS),” National Multiple Sclerosis Society
David Stepp, Ph.D., Department of Physiology, “Increasing Muscle Mass Improves Vascular Function in Obesity (Fellow: Shulqing Qiu),” American Heart Association
Clinton Webb, Ph.D., Department of Physiology, “Toll-Like Receptor 9 Activation Increases Vascular Inflammation and Contractility in Aortic Stiffening (Fellow: Cameron McCarthy),” American Heart Association
Clinton Webb, Ph.D., Department of Physi-
ology, “Vascular Toll-Like Receptor 4 Activation: Role in Hyperglycemia-Induced Vascular Dysfunction (Fellow: Maria Alicia Carillo Sepulveda),” American Heart Association
Mohamed Al-Shabrawey, Ph.D.,
Department of Oral Biology, “Role of Lipoxygenase Pathway in Early Microvascular Dysfunction During Diabetic Retinopathy,” National Eye Institute
Samir Khleif, M.D., GRU Cancer Center,
“DNA Methyltransferase Target Sigtes in Cancer (Fellow: Rochelle Tiedemann),”, National Cancer Institute
Andrew Mellor, Ph.D., GRU Cancer Cen-
ter, “Engineering DNA Nanoparticles as Novel Treatments for Arthritis,” Arthritis Foundation
David Hess, M.D., Department of Neurology,
“Remote Ischemic Conditioning: Translating Endogenous Neuroprotection in Embolic Stroke to the Bedside,” National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes
New Intramural Research Awards Dr. Vadivel Ganapathy, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, “Starve the Tumor Cells to Death via Blockade of SLC6A14: A Logical Strategy for Cancer Therapy,”
Dr. Gregory Passmore, Department of
Medical Laboratory, Imaging, and Radiologic Sciences, “Measurement of the Interactions of Low Energy Gamma Rays with Dense Metals for Applications in Gamma Camera Collimators.”
Drs. Mahmood Mozaffari and Christian Poppeliers, Department Babak Baban, Department of Oral Biology, “The Dr. of Chemistry and Physics, “The Evaluation and Analysis of Role of SGK-1 in Myocardial Ischemia Reperfusion Injury: Effect of Pressure Overload.”
Array-Derived Seismic Displacement Gradients to Determine Wavefield Attributes.”
Dr. Clinton Webb, Department of Physiology, Dr. Perzavia Praylow, Department of History, “Toll-like Receptor 4 Mediates Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetes.”
Anthropology, and Philosophy, “Living Free: The History of Black Augusta Since Reconstruction.”
in Ocular HSV-1 Infections.”
Science, “Fact check this: This Rise of Media Fact-Checking and Implications for Democracy.”
Dr. Ming Zhang, Department of Cellular Biology Dr. Kathleen Searles, Department of Political and Anatomy, for “Autophagy and NLRP3 Inflammasomes Dr. Sergei Kirov, Department of Neurosurgery, Dr. Sea Stachura, “Synaptic Circuitry in Stroke” Dr. Paul McNeil, Department of Cellular
Department of Communications, “Recovering History: Oral Histories of Augusta’s Forgotten 1970 Riot.”
Dr. Lara Stepleman,
Biology and Anatomy, “Antioxidants and Membrane Department of Psychiatry Repair” and Health Behavior, “Illness Identity Integration in a Multiple Center for Undergraduate Research & Scholarship (CURS) Sclerosis Population.” Summer Scholars Program
Dr. Rhonda Armstrong, Department of English & Foreign Languages, “Digital Critical Edition of Joel Chandler Harris.”
Dr. Stacy Bennetts, Department of Biology,
“Investigation of a Rare Plants Species Discovered only on Serpentine in Columbia County, Ga.”
Dr. Trinanjan Datta, Department of
Chemistry and Physics, “Optical and X-Ray Spectroscopy of Metals and Metal Ligand.s”
Dr. John Hayes, Department of History,
Anthropology, and Philosophy, “Southern Transformations 1940-1970: The Local Face of Regional Chang.e”
Dr. Christina Heckman, Department of
English and Foreign Languages, “Epic Heroism in the 21st Century: An Integrative Multimedia Web Resource.”
Recent High-Impact Publications “Thymus-derived regulatory T cells contribute to tolerance to commensal microbiota.” Cebula A, Seweryn M, Rempala GA, Pabla SS, McIndoe RA, Denning TL, Bry L, Kraj P, Kisielow P, Ignatowicz L. Nature. 2013 May 9;497(7448):258-62. Impact Factor=32.2.
Liu X, Smith C, Xiong W-C, Mei, L. Neuron, May 22, 2013. Impact Factor=14.7.
“Vps35 loss promotes hyperresorptive osteoclastogenesis and osteoporosis via sustained RANKL signaling.” Xia WF, Tang FL, Xiong L, Xiong S, Jung JU, Lee DH, Li XS, Feng X, Mei L, Xiong WC. J Cell Biol. 2013 Mar 18;200(6):821-37. Impact Fac“Erbin interacts with TARP γ-2 for sur- tor=10.2. face expression of AMPA receptors in cortical interneurons.” Tao Y, Chen YJ, Shen C, Luo Z, Bates CR, Lee D, Marchetto S, Gao TM, Borg JP, Xiong WC, Mei L. Nat Neurosci. 2013 Mar;16(3):290-9. Impact Factor=15.5. “Bleeding manifestations and management of children with persistent and chronic immune thrombocytopenia: data from the Intercontinental Cooperative ITP Study Group (ICIS).” Neunert CE, Buchanan GR, Imbach P, Bolton-Maggs PH, Bennett CM, Neufeld E, Vesely SK, Adix L, Blanchette VS, Kühne T. Blood. 2013 Apr 2. Impact Factor=9.9 “Reversal of behavioral deficits and synaptic dysfunction in mice overexpressing neuregulin 1.” Yin D-M, Chen Y-J, Lu Y-S Bean JC Sathyamurthy A, She, C,
Smart Compliance Initiative to Reduce Regulatory Burden Walter Loring, Interim Associate Vice President of the Environmental
Health and Safety Division, has launched a series of “Smart Compliance Initiatives” to make research compliance as user-friendly as possible. Seven of the nine initiatives have already been implemented:
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A performance-based approach to Chemical Safety Office laboratory assistance visits. Labs that demonstrate good compliance with hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste regulations receive fewer visits. A reduction in corrective action reporting requirements for CSO laboratory assistance visits. Deficiencies corrected on the spot need not be reported to the Principal Investigator and no corrective action response is required.
Electronic distribution of applications for radioactive material use to Radiation Safety Committee reviewers. The switch from paper mail to electronic distribution significantly reduced turn-around time for approvals. Improvements to the biosafety web site that optimize accessibility and utility.
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A streamlined process for authorizing minors to work in laboratories. The initiatives still in progress are an online training package for shippers Revision of the Biosafety Protocol Application from 12 forms of biological materials and a process to a single, plain-language form in- to ease chemical container labeling requirements in laboratories. Recomcluding step-by-step instructions mendations are welcome for ongoand a pre-Institutional Biosafety ing improvements to environmental, Committee checklist. health, and safety compliance programs. A risk-based approach to assignment of individual radiation dosimeters that significantly reduced the dosimetry requirement for research staff.
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Monterroso Named Director of Laboratory Animal Services
Dr. Victor Monterroso
has been named Director of the Office of Laboratory Animal Services. He began June 3. Monterroso has worked in the lab animal field for more than 15 years.
Most recently he served as Associate Director and Associate Professor of the Department of Comparative Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, where he oversaw the care of animals in the university’s research program and managed the research facility and faculty.
Prior to working at OHSU, he was Assistant Director at the Mannheimer Foundation Inc. and was a clinical veterinarian and Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. Monterroso obtained his Medico Veterinario degree at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, and his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Florida.
He is certified by the Education Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. He is a licensed veterinarian in Florida and Oregon and is accredited by the USDA National Veterinary Accreditation Program.
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